As Climate Crisis Intensifies, GOP Wants to Prohibit Biden From Declaring Emergency [View all]

[Brenda]

(Always interesting to see the (lack of) responses when I post a climate thread in GD.)

Jun 29, 2023

Senate Republicans introduced legislation earlier this week that would prohibit President Joe Biden from declaring a national climate emergency as millions across the U.S. shelter indoors to escape scorching heat and toxic pollution from Canadian wildfires, which have been fueled by runaway warming.

Led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)—a fossil fuel industry ally and the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee—the GOP bill would "prohibit the president from using the three primary statutory authorities available (the National Emergencies Act, the Stafford Act, and section 319 of the Public Health Service Act) to declare a national emergency solely on the basis of climate change," according to a summary released by the Republican senator's office.

~snip~

While Biden reportedly considered declaring a climate emergency amid a devastating heatwave last year, he ultimately decided against it to the dismay of environmentalists.

But the impacts of Canada's record-shattering wildfires, which are likely to get worse in the coming weeks, have sparked another round of calls for Biden to follow in the footsteps of jurisdictions in more than 40 countries and declare climate change a national emergency.

~snip~

(Expect it from Manchin but very disappointed to see Mark Kelley do this)

Last May, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Mark Kelley (D-Ariz.) joined Republicans in approving a nonbinding motion stating that the president "cannot use climate change as a basis for declaring an 'emergency' or 'national disaster.'"

https://www.commondreams.org/news/gop-bill-climate-emergency